Hidden Treasures of the Past
by Clarissa Eden
Summary: After taking Scotty's latest creation out for a test pilot, some of the members of the Enterprise crew find themselves in the 21st century. How will they get back home, and are they the only ones from the future on present day Earth? Bones/OC.
1. Chapter 1

"Alright guys, we'll leave it there for now. Next week isn't up yet, so make sure you check Moodle for seminar prep! Andy, don't you dare forget that meeting you booked with Simon, and bring back that sheet music next week. If you don't I'll kill you." Rachel Cochrane called after the departing seminar class, a semi-serious tone to her voice.

"Sure thing Teach." Someone shouted back over their shoulder, Rachel couldn't be sure it had been Andy, but it didn't really matter, she knew he got her message.

Sighing she looked around her classroom. It was a mess. There were music stands and sheet music everywhere, her bin was overflowing with bits of snapped string and useless parts of compositions, most of them hers. To most, having a working environment like this would be unbearable, but for Rachel, she thrived in it. She liked to surround herself with chaos, she felt it bread creativity. And that is what she needed to encourage, the creative streak in her students. To help them gain the edge in the competitive world of professional musicians. Turning to her desk, piled high with paperwork, she collected the things she needed for tonight so she could head home. Hopefully she would manage to get out of the city centre before rush hour, but it was doubtful. Tourist season was in full swing, and that made trying to get anywhere difficult.

She may have made it seem like she knew what she was doing with the class, but in all honesty, she didn't have a clue. She liked to keep things fresh with her students, they never knew what to expect from their eccentric tutor. This week for example, she had them looking at the music Benny Goodman and Artie Shaw, comparing two of the most celebrated Jazz musicians of their period. The week before she had introduced them to the wonder that was Orchestral Metal, she was planning a trip to see Nightwish play for the class on the department's budget, to show the students the subtle balance that went into making a full orchestra work well with a heavy guitar and base line. What was the point of working in a University without the perks?

After locking up, she started heading for her car, her eyes taking in the overall appearance of the campus as she moved. Rachel loved this time of year, the trees were blossoming, and the daffodils were in full bloom. It was getting warmer, but there was still that slight sharp nip in the air. Plus the lighter nights were starting to come in, for her there was nothing worse than having to leave work and it be pitch black outside.

She dumped her ridiculously heavy bag in the boot of her 1967 Chevrolet Camero. It still amused her that many of the students in Fresher's week still fawned over her car, not daring to touch the sapphire blue with white detailing paint work. The car had been a gift from her brother when they had come to the conclusion they were not getting home anytime soon, he had completely restored it for her as a surprise on her birthday.

After settling herself in the driver's seat, pulled out her phone and turned it on. There was only one rule that she enforced in her classroom to extremes, no phones. She expected her students to turn their mobiles off in her room, and as sign of good faith, hers was also turned off. As soon as the little thing beeped into life, it rang shrilly telling her she had a voice mail from her brother.

Seeing that worried her. Zac never called, except in emergencies. Although with Zac, running out of milk could be considered an emergency. _This must be bad if he's left a voice mail_, Rachel thought to herself, as she dialled her inbox.

"_Rach, we have a situation. I've detected something, I don't know what it is, but I know it doesn't belong here. Rach, I don't want to get any hopes up but this could be our ticket home! I'll wait until you get home before I say anything more, so hurry up."_ Came the clearly excited voice of her twin brother over her phone. The message had been left less than five minuets ago.

To anyone else this message would have sounded incredibly unlike Zac and rather cryptic. Most people who had the pleasure on knowing him, found him rude, condescending and generally a bit of a prick. But he was her brother, and she understood him better than anyone else, meaning that she completely understood what he was referring to. The idea of him being right, that there was a chance of them going home made Rachel's heart speed up.

Pulling out of her parking space she left the campus, praying to any deity that would listen that the traffic would be light today, she really needed to get home.

* * *

"Sulu, what the hell happened?" Captain James Tiberius Kirk groaned to his pilot, as he pulled himself up off the floor, clutching his head.

"I don't know sir." Sulu replied from his prone position on the floor.

"Ok, priorities. Is anyone injured, if so speak up." Jim addressed the room, no one replied. "Right then, who else is still alive? Chekov?"

"Yes, Sir." Came the familiar voice of Pavel, accompanied by a grunt of pain.

"Good, Bones, you still kicking?"

"I'll be kicking your ass in a minute if we don't find out what's going on!" Bones responded with a disgruntled tone to his voice.

"Of course you will. Spock, you good?" Jim laughed a little to try and diffuse the tension, whilst praying that Bones was only joking.

"I am well Captain." Spock replied, formal as ever.

"Scotty?" Jim called out, hoping the intercom system was still working on board the large shuttle.

"Aye Capt'n?" Came the crackled response over the speakers.

"At least you're still alive. What the hell is going on?" Jim demanded as he tried to get a look around the main cabin of the shuttle, the lack of light made this reasonably difficult. In a sense Jim was glad, he didn't know if he really wanted to see the potential damage.

"Can ah' get back to you on tha' Capt'n. Am not really sure, but the lights should be coming back on in a mo'."

Just then the lights flickered back on, taking a quick glance around the cabin; Jim noticed that the damage seemed to be minimal. Sighing in relief, Jim then took note of where various crew members were. Everyone appeared to be a little bit shook up from what had just happened, not that he had any idea what that was. They were all sitting up, but were still on the floor, apart from Spock who was fiddling around at one of the stations.

"Captain, it would appear we have returned to Earth." Spock informed him.

"What? That's impossible!" Jim called out, as he got up on shaky legs and stumbled his way over to his first officer. Taking a look at the monitor, Jim took note of what it was telling him. Spock was right; they were back in the Terran system. "How it this possible?"

"I do not know." Spock responded, seemingly un-phased by everything that appeared to be going on around them. But when he thought about it, Jim wasn't overly surprised. When it came to Spock, the Vulcan was calm about almost everything. The only time Jim had ever seen Spock show anything other than a sense of calmness was when he himself had pushed Spock over the emotional ledge, and action the Jim was not willing to commit again. He could still feel Spock's hand around his neck sometimes, it was unsettling at best.

"Well then Mr Spock, I look forward to you figuring all of this out." Jim announced as he clapped Spock on the back, noticing and smirking at how his First Officer tensed slightly from the contact.

Casting his eyes around the small cabin, Jim was impressed to see his officers getting straight to work. He needed to know what the hell was going on, and the sooner he found out, the sooner he could get to fixing whatever was wrong.

"Keptin?" Chekov called out, drawing Jim's attention away from generally surveying the cabin and his small contingency of people. "I am unable to locate ze Space Dock, and Starfleet command iz not responding to our hails, neither iz ze Mars station or Alpha station."

"What?" Jim asked in a disbelieving voice snapping back into his role as a Starfleet Captain, of the flag ship no less.

"Eet's not zere Keptin. Zere iz nothing. Zey are gone Sir."

Scotty came bustling into the room; he looked flustered and pleased with himself all at the same time.

"Ah, Jim. Av managed to fix the shuttle, but she won' last long. The sooner we can get her back on the Enterprise the better. When are we gonna rendezvous wit' her?"

"Mr Scott, it would appear that we are no longer in the Gamma quadrant. We appear to have returned to Earth, we are currently in orbit around Earth's moon." Spock commented, he was still trying to figure out how they had managed to travel such a great distance so quickly in such a small craft. "I was under the impression that you had equipped this shuttle with warp capability, yet this has greatly exceeded my expectations."

"That canna be right Mr Spock." Scotty said, the confusion laced in his voice.

"I cannot deny what is fact Mr Scott." Spock said back, still trying to get all the information he could out of the limited science station. If he were on the Enterprise, he would have a full artillery of sensors at his disposal, and he would most likely know exactly what had happened by now, but he was working with limited resources, sans the full power of the ship's computer.

"Captain?" Sulu asked. "What is that?"

He was pointing to a structure that the shuttle was picking up on the short range sensors. It was orbiting the Earth and appeared to be transmitting something back towards the planet. Jim didn't have a clue what it was; he had never seen it there before. But then again, all of the space stations were missing as well.

"I don't know." Jim mumbled to himself more than anyone else. "Put it on screen."

"I believe eet iz a satellite Keptin." Chekov spoke up. "I remember learning about zem in Earth history. Zey were used as a method of communication between ze tventieth and tventy first centuries."

"That still doesn't make any sense Chekov. Why would we have satellites orbiting the planet? They've been obsolete for years." Jim asked. He was still extremely confused about the whole situation. He'd read about satellites, it was on most elementary curriculums, but he had never seen one, not even an image of one. They had all been destroyed at some point or another, most of them by various solar storms.

Spock focused on the readings he was receiving on the apparent satellites. He had noticed them before, but had registered them as 'space junk' that had simply been caught in Earth's orbit. But now he realised they were something completely different.

"Captain." Spock started after a few seconds of complete silence, other than the quite murmuring's of McCoy about how he always got dragged into 'this kind of crap'. "I believe I have found out the reason for the anomalies."

The men gathered around Spock at the station he had been at for the past five minutes. It was displaying an image of a woman speaking, but there was no sound, she was wearing a suit and a stream of information scrolling across the bottom of the screen. He had managed to tap into one of the transmissions that was being sent up to one of the satellites and then cast back down towards the planet.

"What the hell is that supposed to tell us?" Jim demanded.

"Observe the bottom right and corner." Spock stated his voice remaining calm. "It is displaying the date in the Gregorian layout. This is supposedly a live stream. Right now on Earth it is April 27th 2012."

* * *

**So this is my latest Star Trek 2009 Story. I will admit that this plot line had been bouncing around my head since about February, but having recently watched _The Voyage Home_ and an OS episode from the first season that's name escapes my mind,I was spurred on into finally getting around to writing this.**

**Either way, reviews would be awesome, but just have people read this would be enough :)**

**Xoxo**


	2. Chapter 2

Rachel pulled her car to a halt outside of her home. Glancing around the square yard, she looked for her brother on the off chance that he was lingering nearby for her return. He seldom left the estate anymore, he hated being here and hadn't adapted as well as she had. He preferred to stay here and think of ways to get them back home. In addition to that, it was imperative that someone who could relate to the general population remain on site at all times. In the past they had only managed to avoid potentially destructive moments by the skin of their teeth when some of the indigenous people came strolling onto the property, and Rachel did not like the idea of having to explain everything to outsiders. They would either believe her, or think of her a crazy, and neither option sounded particularly appealing.

Getting out of the car, she checked to make sure that she wouldn't be stepping in any muddy puddles. Before colleting her bag and making her way up to the main house. As soon as she opened the door she was nearly barrelled down by a furry attacker. Laughing Rachel pushed him down, but he kept jumping up.

"Archer! Stop it, get down." She light heartedly scolded the beagle as he welcomed her home. "Shall we go and find out what has gotten Zac's knickers all in a twist?"

Crossing the hall, she made for the kitchen with the clipping of Archer's nails following her. Heading towards the wine cellar door, she noticed that the light was on and the top half of the door was open, which meant Zac was probably down there.

"Zac?" She called down the stairs. "Zac? Are you down there?"

"Yes." He called back. "Get down here, and leave that bloody dog up there. He always does something to fuck with my computers."

"Just a sec." Rachel called down to her brother. Before turning to the dog, who looked up at her with big soulful brown eyes. "Sorry sweetie. Zac won't let you down there."

Making sure to close the bottom half of the door behind her, Rachel made her way down the stone steps, her footfalls echoed around her in the tunnel like structure which lead her below her house.

"Hey Rach." Zac greeted. It was half hearted; he was busy concentrating on something else on one of his various computers. "Come and have a look at this."

Zac pointed to a graph with an abnormally large spike on it.

"That's great, what does it mean?" Rachel asked.

Zac gave her a filthy look.

"Oh sorry Mr Physicist/Engineer/Technical genius. Remember I'm just a pilot, I'm not like you damn it." Rachel remained her brother. It seemed that sometimes he forgot that she didn't see things the same way as he did. To her what he had showed her was a squiggly line, with a very big bit on it; to him it was obviously something different. Sure, Zac was a genius when it came to computers and mechanics, but the man couldn't fly for shit. That's where she came in, they were a double act. He was the mechanic, and she flew the contraptions he built.

"Right sorry."

He didn't mean it; his monotonous voice said it all.

"So tell me, what does all this mean?" She asked again.

"This spike is a detection of an abnormally high electromagnetic activity. There is always some residual activity, but this is not normal. There was a similar spike the day we got here, and we've encountered it a few more times after that, as you already know. I think there's a ship out there. Plus I'm detecting a Tri-lithium signature on the long range scanner, nothing like that is available yet, so it's defiantly something from close to home."

"Can we hail them?" Rachel asked, the seriousness of the situation dawning on her. This could be it; someone had come looking for them.

"I'm trying to establish a connection. I have to work around the satellites, the last thing we need if for any government to detect them as well. The head cases at the Pentagon will probably launch a missile at it and blow it up, or the Russian's might try something. Or the Yanks and the Chinese will fight over who gets to study it and apprehend it first." Zac spoke as he was typing at an incredible speed.

Rachel quietly laughed at her brother. Ever since the probe he had managed to launch two years ago had been destroyed by the US government he had developed a dislike for politics and the military, regardless of which country it belonged to. She had attempted to reason with him by saying that launching an unidentified probe into Earth's atmosphere was a bad move. His retaliation had been that it had only been detected because his cloaking device had failed and that they were morons because the probe was harmless. He then took to 'getting them back' by hacking into various government systems. So far he had shut down the CIA computer systems, hacked Scotland Yard and the Pentagon's protected files and was working on infiltrating the computer systems used by NASA and the Russian Space programs.

Rachel had to admit that her brother was amusing. He was running rings around some of the most sophisticated pieces of software in the world, and no one had any idea who was doing it. They were all blaming an organisation called 'Anonymous', the idea that it was all down to one man with a serious grudge hadn't crossed anyone's mind. Zac was causing an international crisis with what he was doing. It was all rather laughable really. Well it was for her. But a larger part of her rational mind was glad that this other organisation was being blamed for her brother's actions. They had to be careful, anything they did could alter the flow of the past, and that wasn't something they could risk.

"Right there we go. I've managed to get around the blanket net, it'll probably only be audio, but we will be able to make contact." Zac announced, reaching for a microphone he had on one of his shelves.

"Well you do that then. I've got some other things to see to right now." Rachel informed her brother as she climbed the steps leading to the kitchen. Calling over her shoulder just before she reached the top, "And be nice, or at least don't be rude!"

All she got in response was a derogatory scoff.

There was no point talking to Zac when he got like this, she could make better progress with a brick wall. And she really did have other things to be getting on with. Rachel had a sneaking suspicion that Zac had spent the better part of the day down in his cellar, which of course meant that as per usual, he had neglected other things. Things like making sure that the various animals on the property had been feed. Letting out a rather large sigh at her twin's juvenile behaviour, Rachel stepped out into the yard; Archer trotting along merrily at her heals.

* * *

"Captain." Sulu announced, he was back sitting at his pilot's station. "We're being hailed Sir."

"What? Where from?" Jim demanded. This was all very confusing. They were apparently over 200 years in the past, and now they were being hailed? What the hell was going on? Not only that, Scotty had been fiddling about with a conduit, and it had short-circuited, giving him some nasty burns. So Bones having to deal with the heavily protesting engineer, who was claiming that he was 'fine', when the smell of burnt flesh emanating from his hands said otherwise.

"The planet Sir. Someone on Earth knows we're here and they want to talk to us. It's audio only. Sir, the signal isn't what it should be for this time; whoever it is they have advanced technology. There is a message along with the hail informing us that the connection is secured and will not be detected by the plant's various national officials." Sulu answered.

"Pass it through." Jim ordered. He wanted answers and he wanted them now, plus he was intrigued to learn who was down on Earth who clearly shouldn't be.

"This is Captain Kirk. To whom am I speaking?" If Sulu was right, this greeting should be okay, but he wanted to keep somewhat vague.

"A Captain, nice." A male voice commented. "My name is Zachary. What time frame are you from?"

Jim was slightly taken aback by the boldness of the question. Somehow the person on the planet knew that they were from a different time. And by the resounding silence that filled the cabin, Jim guessed that everyone else was surprised by the question as well.

At the silence this Zachary person spoke again. "Come now Captain. From the fact that you were able to receive this transmission alone, I know that you come from at the very least, the latter part of the 22nd century. Before that, communications between planet and spacecraft weren't this advanced. So come on, dates, or at least a ball park figure to work with."

"Err, we come from the mid-23rd century." Jim stumbled out, unsure of whether it would be wise to give specific dates or not, clearly deciding that not was the better option.

"Brilliant!" Came the resounding answer. "Finally someone from a similar-ish time frame! This is turning into one of the best day's I had in a long time. Captain, you've not only made my day, but you've made my year. But of course that's all relative isn't it?"

"And why is that?" Jim asked cautiously, not completely knowing or understanding what the faceless man was talking about.

"I'll explain all that later Captain, I swear. I expect you'll have taken damages, so you'll have to land your ship. By the way, just how big is it? I can detect you, but I can't get a clear fix on the dimensions of your ship, damn Russians and their bloody satellites. I might have to do some mild demolition. Plus then there's the slight modifications that'll have to be made, yes, yes, it's all coming together. It'll take a while, but soon, yes soon. Ha!" The voice came out in a flurry that strongly suggested that Zachary was talking to himself as opposed to Jim. "Oh, how many are in your crew? My sister will want to know. And are you all human? If you are it just making things easier for us and maintaining appearances."

Jim's eyes were wide with a mixture of shock, bemusement and confusion. He was quickly coming to the conclusion that this man, whoever he was, was a few nacelles short of a warp engine. Despite the fact the Jim's mind was working on overdrive, he couldn't have tuned out the appalled sound that issued forth from Chekov at the nut case on the planet insulting the young man's native land.

"Our ship is merely a shuttle craft. My crew consists of six including myself, and we're all human, for the most part." Jim relayed once again to the faceless man, all the while casting Spock a sideways glance. "You are not alone here?"

"No, not by a long shot. We have a small community down here Captain, you'll see all of that when you get down here." Zachary replied, sighing at the conclusion of his sentence. "You have to wait for me to give you a signal, and I'll then send you our co-ordinates. It'll be about two hours before you can even consider making a decent into the atmosphere, best do that when it gets dark out."

Jim frowned at that, he recognised the Iowa accent when he heard it. And right now he could see that it was broad daylight all across the Eastern Seaboard, and judging from the line of shadow that was halfway across America, it would remain broad daylight for a considerable amount of time. It would certainly be longer than two hours before nightfall. Jim spoke of his confusion and concern to Zachary, who in turn laughed.

"And what pray tell, gave you the impression that we're located in America?" Zachary managed to ask once he had got his laughter under control.

"I'm from Iowa myself." Jim announced. "I'd recognise that accent anywhere."

"You have a good ear Captain, I am from Iowa. Or at least that's where my sister and I grew up. But we didn't land in America, it would have been too dangerous there for us, we're in Europe. The North East of England to be exact." Zachary chuckled. "I will contact you in two hours, I have preparations to make. Cochrane out."

And with that the connection was broken.

"Did he just say his name was Cochrane?" Bones asked.

Jim was just stood stock still, he couldn't believe what he had just heard.

"Doctor, I believe ze better qvestion vould be, vot he meant by 'bloody Russians'?" Chekov practically spat, obviously enraged at the insult on his home country. Which naturally set Sulu into a fit of laughter despite the seriousness of the situation that they had somehow found themselves in.

* * *

**And here's the second chapter. I'm impressed with the number of people who read the first chapter, especially after it was only up for a day before I posted this chapter.**

**Thanks to those of you who reviewed chapter one, and those of you who added this story to your favourites/alerts. Your support is much appreciated.**

**Xoxo **


	3. Chapter 3

**I'M BAAACK!**

**Hi guys, as you can see I'm no longer in my little hiatus. Any of you that read my Spock story know why I've been away for a little while, but all I can say is that I aim to be updating much more often than I have been. But given that I have three stories on the go atm, and another on in the beginning stages of planning, I'll probably be updating once a week, if not more.**

**I hope you like this chapter, I spent ages playing about with it and I was unsure about the route I have chosen to take it, but oh well...**

**Don't forget to review! - it's my only form of payment ;)**

* * *

Zac clapped his hands together once in a burst of joy. In all honesty his behaviour reminded him of that of a young child. He quickly formed a mental plan of what he needed to do, there was so much that needed to be done, he almost didn't know where to start. In the chaos that was his mind however, one resounding message made it through loud and clear. _Tell Rachel_.

Pushing away from his desk, Zac allowed his wheeled chair to propel him as far down the room, towards the stairs, as it would let him. And then, springing to his feet, charged up the stairs two at a time to the kitchen, all the while his mind was working at a speed of knots.

There were people here, from their own century, and they had a ship. It was a small one, true. But it would be big enough for him to work with. He hoped they had an engineer with them, someone who was competent at least when it came to maths and ship design. Zac didn't know what he'd do if they only had pilots in their company. Thinking about it he should have asked, he couldn't work with people who were only capable of flying the machines he meticulously built. He constantly felt like he was fighting against them, and more often than not he lost out when a higher power was forced to mediate the issue. It was partially from this that Zac's dislike of bureaucratic powers had spawned.

Plus, Zac understood the minds of pilots. His twin sister was the most accomplished pilot he knew, and she was the only one who was ever allowed to pilot his machines for the first test runs. There was no doubting that Zac truly loved his sister. And in some ways, she was his better half. But there was no point in denying the fact that when it came to the cognitive processes, Zac had undoubtedly won. He was a genius, bordering on the tipping point of being a sociopath, but a genius none the less. Sure Rachel was intelligent, that much was clear upon talking to her, but it was Zac who was the undisputed genius. Still it was Rachel that actually made him somewhat more pleasant and bearable to the mass majority of society.

"Rachel!" Zac called out, he sounded like a kid at Christmas. "Rachel, they're coming. They have a ship and it might be salvageable!"

"That's nice Zac, what did you do with the eggs?" Rachel asked him nonchalantly, she had seen him like this before. And every time he worked himself up like this, it didn't bode well if things didn't work just as Zac wanted, so Rachel had learned over the years to go along with him, but not to overly encourage him when he was relying on others.

"Rachel, listen to me! A ship will be landing out in the woods come nightfall, several people will be joining us, and I need their help. If they let me have their ship we might be able to go home!" Zac emphasised, knowing exactly what his sister was doing. "Just think, they might be able to get us back to our families. You might be able to get back to George and James."

There was a sudden loud clap that resounded throughout the large farmhouse kitchen as Rachel's palm made contact with Zac's cheek. There was a stunned silence from the two humans in the room, neither quite believing what had just happened. The only sound that could be heard was the disgruntled grumble from Archer who had been woken up by the noise.

"That was a low blow Zac, using George and James against me to manipulate my feelings." Rachel hissed at her twin. "Whilst yes, I want to get excited about the prospect of getting home, as nothing would make me happier than to be able to get back to them. I can't bear the thought of you failing again and crushing my hopes. If you ever use the memory of my boys against me one more time I swear it'll be one of the last things you ever do Zac, you hear me?"

A tense atmosphere hung in the air for a few moments as Zac gazed at his sister, his eyes revelling nothing about his feelings. He knew in deep within his heart that he had crossed a line mentioning his nephew. Rachel worked hard to distract herself from the fact that she was so far away from her son, that's why she had thrown herself into life in the 21st century. But it was because of Rachel that Zac worked equally hard to get them home. True at times he was perceived by most people as a cold and ruthless person, but he would do anything for his sister.

"I'm sorry." Zac eventually spoke, a level monotone to his voice.

"You bet your ass that you're sorry. I can't have my heart broken again Zac, so don't play with it." Rachel snapped, turning away from her brother. "Anyway don't you have something to go and do? I have a meal to prepare, since it appears that we're having guests."

* * *

If there was one thing that Pavel Chekov prided himself on it was his perceptiveness. Having been one of many in a house that was dominated by the female sex, he had learned to pick up shifts in moods; after all it had been in his best interest to do so.

So when he noticed that Captain Kirk had been rather quiet ever since the transmission from the planet below, his pressed the matter further, but not with the Captain himself but with the Captain's best friend.

"Doctor?" Pavel questioned cautiously. Doctor McCoy was reading something on his PADD, and if there was one thing that every Ensign knew on the Enterprise, it was to never interrupt McCoy unless you were dying.

"Hm? Yes Chekov?" Bones answered, glancing up at the obvious nervous Ensign.

"I believe zat something it twoubling Keptin Kirk." Pavel voice held strong under the Doctor's gaze, his eyes displayed just how nervous he truly was.

"Really now? What makes you say that?" Bones asked, doubt in the Ensign's statement lacing his voice.

"He haz not spoken ever since ze transmission from Earth Sir. He seems to be deep in thought, and he's scovling a lot Sir."

Frowning himself, Bones cast a glance over to Jim, who was indeed scowling. And now thinking about it, Chekov was right, Jim had been uncharacteristically quiet for the past half hour. Especially since Jim should have been excited. It was no secret that Jim was a 20th and 21st century pop culture nut, now that he was here he should have been bouncing off the walls, not sat staring, literally, into space.

"Alright then, I look into it Chekov. Thank you for bringing it to my attention." Bones cast the younger man a tentative smile.

Nodding to his senior officer, Pavel turned and walked back over to his seat, falling into easy and fluid conversation with Hikaru Sulu.

Sighing to himself, and marking his place on his PADD. Bones dragged himself to his feet and crossed the small distance to slump back down next to Jim.

"Alright, what the hell is wrong with you?" Bones briskly enquired. He really wasn't into the touch feely crap, especially when it came to Jim. Enough people looked at them funny as it was, he disliked giving anyone anything to use against them. He had even overheard a couple of young crewmen talking about his and Jim's relationship as potentially being beyond that of just good friends. To say the least the small group had one hell of a time playing the part of human guinea pigs for a range of Bones' trial pharmaceuticals.

"What?" Jim asked, his voice distant. "Oh, erm, nothing."

"Bullshit. You look like you've had your ass kicked for the first time, and are completely clueless as to what just happened to you." Bones scoffed. "Plus, you're about as transparent as a Kilingon Bird of Prey right now, so spill it."

Jim remained silent and continued to stare at the great expanse that was space, his reluctance to talk about what was bothering him obvious.

Bones sighed again, and decided to come at this from a different angle. "Come on Jim. You've been silent for the better part of an hour now, uncharacteristically so. So just tell me what bothering you, or I'll set Spock on you."

That last comment made Jim crack a smile, before he sighed himself. "You're not gonna let this go are you?"

Bones laughed. "Ya'll have got a better chance of getting snow in Georgia in the middle of July, now come on."

"Fine." Jim murmured, the reluctance still laced thickly in his voice. "When we first made contact with whoever is down there, I though the voice sounded familiar, but I chose to ignore it, even when he said his name was Zachary for the sake of it being a mere coincidence. And then he said 'Cochrane'."

Bones was the one frowning now, "Okay, so he said Cochrane I fail to see how any of this is relevant. As far as I'm aware, unless you've been hiding something major from me, you don't know anyone from the Cochrane dynasty."

"Bones you don't get it!" Jim moaned, covering his despairing face with his hands.

"Of course I don't get it, you haven't told me anything to get."

Jim seemed to snap, and turned to glare at his best friend. "Bones, down there Zachary Cochrane is waiting for us. But not just Zachary Cochrane, its Zachary Cochrane and his sister, Rachel. Together they are better known as the Cochrane twins. They disappeared when I was eight years old. Search attempts were mounted across the quadrant. The pair of them had disappeared in the middle of a test flight of the latest warp engine that Zachary Cochrane had developed. They were presumed dead, but their bodies were never found, there was no wreckage."

"Yea, I know. I remember the news coverage. In case you've forgotten, I'm older than you." Bones snipped back. "All you've shown me here is that you have a ridiculous amount of knowledge regarding the disappearance of the Cochrane twins. Did you do a report on it or something when you were a kid?"

"In the news, it was reported that whilst Zachery Cochrane left behind no one but his parents and other siblings, Rachel Cochrane on the other hand left behind her ten year old son, George." Jim paused and seemed to attempt to swallow the lump in his throat. "What most people didn't know about was the fact that there was another child in Rachel's care, her Godson. She looked after him because his mother was attempting, and failing to deal with the loss of her husband. When Rachel disappeared her Godson, for lack of a better term, 'fell of the rails'. He became a young offender, he was frequently in trouble with the police, he stole, he lied and he cheated. He drove his mother to the end of her tether."

Bones remained silent and gazed at his best friend with a cautious look. He was getting a sense of where this was going, and he wasn't sure if he liked it.

"That boy was me, Bones."


	4. Chapter 4

Rachel sighed deeply, as she stared intently at contents on the ring binder laid out on the table. She was trying to plan out some of her lessons for next week, but was failing miserably. She couldn't get her mind off of the people in the ship miles above the Earth, who she was now supposed to put up and feed no less. She still didn't know how many people were up there, yet alone know any of their names, but given the nature of her brother, she would expect nothing less. He didn't consider most of the excepted social niceties as something he should bother himself with, much to her annoyance, and to that of anyone around him. Stretching her arms above her head, she looked down at her beloved companion, and forever faithful friend, Archer.

"What are we gonna do with him Buddy?" She asked the ageing beagle, as he looked up at her with his deep soulful eyes. Rachel liked to believe that Archer understood and sympathised with her, Zac certainly didn't most of the time, so having someone there made things easier.

"Rachel?" The disembodied voice of her brother called from his 'work room'.

Sighing again, Rachel looked at Archer and rolled her eyes. "Speak of the devil, hey boy?"

Pushing her chair back, causing it screech against the stone tiled floor, Rachel stood and made her way towards the cellar. "What?" She queried, dreading the answer.

"Rach, can you come down here a sec? I need your opinion on something." Zac announced, as his pale and ghostly face appeared at the bottom of the stairs. "Please, it's an emergency."

Rolling her eyes once again, Rachel allowed her feet to take her down the steps. She immediately made out the shape of her brother in the dimly lit room; he was silhouetted by his desk lamp.

"Wow, it must be an emergency if you're saying please." She quipped as she walked over to him, being forever wary of whatever may have been left on the floor for her to trip over.

"Screw you." Zac murmured as he continued to type furiously at his one of his computers.

"Oh that's nice!" Rachel challenged, a smirk playing on her lips. Despite his numerous and annoying flaws, Zac was still her brother and her best 'guy' friend. "So what's the big emergency?"

Without turning to look at her, or even pausing to talk to her, Zac started reeling off a list of instructions. He wanted her to set up at least three of the guest rooms in the vast farm house that they had managed to acquire, with two men to a room, it should be enough, at least in Zac's opinion. She was then expected to make sure there was enough food to feed the additional six people that would be staying in their home. Rachel knew that there was more Zac wanted to say, but she was forced to stop him.

"Excuse me, not one single thing you've just told me qualifies as an emergency, and at what point did I become your maid, set to wait upon you hand and foot?" Rachel demanded, arching a severely pissed off eyebrow. "I do have other things to be getting on with, like planning for my lectures next week."

"Rachel, if everything goes according to plan, we won't be here next week." Zac argued, finally turning to her and providing her with his full attention. "And I need to get everything ready for their arrival. I've just moved a Chinese drone plane out of the way so their ship can land undetected. Not only that, I've had to plant a bug in NASA's mainframe to disable the network for half an hour. Do you have any idea how long that takes?"

"Yes, it takes _you_ about five minutes. So how about you get your ass upstairs and check out the food situation yourself, whilst I make up the guest rooms? Our relationship has always been one of equals Zac, don't try and change the dynamic now." Rachel reasoned, knowing full well that reason and explanation was the only way to get her brother to cooperate. "And you have no idea if we'll still be here next week, so shut up about it, I don't want to hear about it anymore."

And with that, she turned on her heels and left her brother staring after her, mouth slightly agape.

* * *

"What do you mean Jim?" Bones asked, an incredulous tone to his voice. "Are you saying that Rachel Cochrane is your Godmother?"

"I'm fairly certain that that is what I just said." Jim murmured, allowing his head to once again fall back against the bulkhead he was propped up against.

Bones was silent for a moment, allowing himself a small amount of time to process what he had just learned. "But, we've known each other for years. How the hell have you managed to keep that a secret all of this time? You're crap at keeping anything to yourself."

"It's not something I like to talk about Bones." Jim responded after forcing himself to swallow the bile that had crept up his throat.

"But why?" Bones pushed completely bewildered. "In all the time I've know you, you've never had a problem about others knowing your personal business. Back at the Academy, I knew who you had slept with, where you had slept with them and when it happened, and it wasn't even you that would tell me!"

"Yea, and in all the time you've known me Bones. When was the last time I had an actual girlfriend? Or had a close friendship with anyone other than you or Spock?" Jim snapped as he turned to glare at his best friend. And upon seeing the realisation in Bones's eyes continued, "Exactly, the only two people who I've managed to form strong and close ties to in my adult life are just as screwed up in the head as I am!"

Bones flinched as Jim yelled at him. The whole cabin was silent now, as the rest of the rough hardy band of men tuned into the formerly private conversation.

The tension was becoming unbearable for everyone present, when Jim rose to his feet and turned to leave the small confined cabin. As he left, with his back to the room, Jim called over his shoulder, "You have the Conn, Mr Spock." Before storming away to another area of the small shuttle craft.

At Jim's retreat, Bones could have sworn he had seen a tear slide down the side of Jim's face. When he thought about it, Bones realised that despite being Jim's closest friend, he actually knew very little about his past history. Sure he knew about the shit Jim got himself into when he was a kid, some of the stories were actually really amusing, others were kind of hard to believe. But Bones had never heard a story from Jim's past where he wasn't getting himself into trouble, either with the law or with his stepfather. It was at that moment that Bones really started to worry about his Captain and Friend's early life and the overall effect it was having on him even now.

* * *

For the umpteenth time that evening, Zac Cochrane literally, not practically, skipped as he made his way around the house. The sun had just kissed the horizon, which meant that he could contact the small craft and coach it into coming down and landing. And for Rachel, seeing her brother behave in such a fashion was both amusing and horrifying at the same time.

After she had managed to coax him out of the converted wine cellar, and into helping her, they had discussed at length about how the next hour and a half would go. Despite stating that he would contact the ship about the dimensions of the ship so he could find a suitable landing site, Zac had managed to 'borrow' a range of different satellites into picking up images of the small vessel, before promptly wiping their memory banks and setting them on their merry way. So the need to contact the ship again had been rendered unnecessary. In the mean time, Zac had located a landing site that would be big enough for the ship, which was on their property, and not so far away that working on modifying the craft would become a camping trip for him. Not that he'd be completely opposed to the idea should it be deemed necessary.

Grabbing his microphone, Zac skidded to a halt in front of his computer. Typing in the relevant information needed to transmit and receive from the waiting ship, he was forced to wait for the contraption to connect and pick up a signal.

"This is Cochrane, contacting the waiting vessel in orbit around Earth's moon, please respond." Zac spoke, desperate to hear the response. So desperate in fact, he was bouncing on the balls of his feet.

"This is Commander Spock, what is your message?"

Zac couldn't help but frown at that. "Not to be rude Commander, but where is your Captain? I was hoping to discuss the logistics of the landing procedure for the site I have located."

"My Captain has been attending to another matter, and is indisposed at this moment in time. Please continue with your intended discussion." Spock relayed, giving no hint as to what his Captain was doing that was more important that getting that ship safely to Earth.

"Very well." Zac answered, not wanting to over think the situation. From there he and Spock covered everything from the best speed at which to attempt breaching Earth's atmosphere, to the measures that Zac had gone to in order to ensure that they were not detected, at one point Zac had let slip that he had gone as far as to interrupt the nearby rail system, just to make sure that a passenger on a passing train wouldn't see the lights of the shuttle as it came close to the landing site. Zac also transmitted the projected flight plan, and the final co-ordinates of the patch of woods that he had chosen.

"Is there anything else you feel requires discussing Mr Cochrane? Or are we clear to begin our descent to the Planet?" Spock asked, remaining polite, despite Zac's fretting nature about the matter at hand, as it was illogical to by anything but.

"Oh yea, my sister will be at the site waiting for you with transport back to our home. It is a considerable distance. I will remain here, and will be available for contact should you run into any trouble. I look forward to meeting you and the rest of your company Commander. Cochrane out."

* * *

**And the writing process continues...**

**I don't know why, but I've had a major problem with writers block for a while now, and it's really starting to piss me off. I think it's because I've stopped using the trains, they appear to by my source of inspiration, weird isn't it?**

**Either way, thanks to everyone for the continued support.**

**Xoxo**


	5. Chapter 5

"Rachel!" Zac yelled from the kitchen into the rest of the house.

"What, and there's no need to yell." Came Rachel's disembodied voice from the next room, before she made an appearance in the door way, her ever loyal shadow trotting along at her heels.

"Get your coat, and the Jeep. I need you to get to these co-ordinates in the next 15 minuets." Zac instructed as he handed her a post-it note.

"Why can't you go?" Rachel asked sounding irritated about being ordered around.

"Because you're infinitely better at dealing with people that I am. Plus I need to stay here and work on some calculations. I don't know who'll be on that ship, and I can't afford to lose time if all of them are idiots."

Rachel rolled her eyes as she snatched the keys for the jeep off of the wall. "There you go displaying that glowing personality of your again. Still not sure if you're being rude to me, or flattering." She quipped. "Come on Archer, we're going on a car trip."

In a way, when she thought about it, Zac was lucky that she understood him better than anyone else ever had. When they were growing up, there was an air of expectancy surrounding them both; they came from a long line of technical people, a line of people that had built a business empire on warp technology development. And whilst it was clear early on, the Zac was a genius, no one could get through to him, not even their parents. No one other than Rachel, and then later on George Kirk had managed to hold his own against her surly brother, which is why she had named her own son after him. George Kirk had been the only friend Zac had ever had, his only real friend other than herself, and if that didn't warrant being a name sake, she didn't know what did.

Stepping out into the yard again, Rachel was reminded that is was still very much April, as the excruciatingly cold wind rattled through her at a rate of knots. She shivered against the cold, and made a bee-line towards the jeep. Archer got in before her and bounded across the seats to the passenger side, and he settled down comfortably as she kick started the engine into life. The jeep was an ancient piece of machinery; Zac hadn't even bothered to upgrade its systems, so it still ran off of Petrol. The thunder of the engine's pistons firing reverberated around the tiny yard, and Rachel managed to get away into the night.

* * *

"Jim?" Bones called through the sealed door, for what seemed like the hundredth time. "For God sake Jim, open up, don't make me beg now!"

"Leave me alone Bones." Came Jim's muffled response through the thick metal.

'_Well at least he hasn't hung himself.'_ Bones thought bitterly to himself, only half joking.

"Jim, open this door, or I swear I'll have Scotty force it!" Nothing came back in response. "Come on Jim, please, just talk to me."

The faint sound of the door being unlocked reached Bones' ears, as the door remained closed, but at least he now had access. Punching in the key code, Bones watched as the doors slid open, revealing his friend hunched over in chair.

"Fine, talk. Just none of your psycho-babble crap." Jim murmured, keeping his eyes averted, "I haven't got the time for that shit at the best of times."

"Come on Jim, you've got to give me something…" Bones was keeping his voice low and calm, not wanting to aggravate Jim again.

"Do I?"

"Yes you fucking do." Bones was trying to get Jim to at least smirk a little. "Don't make me order you."

"Who died and made you Captain?"

"No one, now talk to me dipshit before I hypo your ass into the 21st century."

That had done it; Jim was smirking slightly, and had even glanced up towards Bones who was perched on the edge of the up turned desk.

"You stay the hell away from me with that hypo spray."

Bones couldn't help the smirk of victory as Jim sat up, rolled his shoulders, and looked directly at him.

"Now, are you gonna tell me what some of this crap is about then? You know all about my bat-shit crazy past, my early marriage to an insane woman and the lack of a relationship I have with my kid because of her, so start sharing. But properly this time."

"Where d'you want me to start?" Jim mumbled, he didn't like where this was going, he hated talking about his past, especially the emotional stuff.

"Start with the fact you actually had some form of a childhood when you were a young kid."

"You already know the basics yeah? I was born in space, my dad died to protect me, and all of that?" Jim was dragging his feet into this discussion, and it was showing.

Bones sighed. It was his father sigh, the one he used to use on Joanna when she was a little girl. "Come on Jim; just tell me how much the Cochrane family factor in. Not all of it, just enough to give me something to work with."

"When my mom got back to Earth, I was only a couple of weeks old," Jim continued. "She'd just lost my dad; she had me and no one else to turn to, other than my dad's former best friend, Rachel. Rachel Cochrane had been close to my dad before my mom had even come into the picture, she named her own son after him. Rachel knew how to look after kids, so she taught my mom how to look after me. And over time, she started looking after me when my mom started leaving the planet to get away from the fact I looked just like my dad."

"Jim… I had no idea."

"Of course you didn't Bones, no one does." Jim let out a bitter laugh. "When I was about four, I learned that Rachel wasn't my mom and I cried about that. I wanted her to be my mom instead of mine. And it was Rachel who held me as I cried, it was her who was with me at the hospital the first time I broke my arm falling out of a tree, it was her who gave me my first bike and it was her who was the first person that believed I could be someone."

For the first time, Bones could see Jim, the real Jim. And deep down, he was a mess. "Jim, you are someone. Look at you, the youngest Star Feet Captain that's ever served. Rachel will be proud of you!"

"What about the 12 years before Star Fleet?" Jim murmured. "Think she'll be proud of them?"

"Why does it matter? You're the Captain here Jim, you're going to have to be the one who greets this woman when we land, something I think you should be there for by the way, so quit moping, and be who you are."

* * *

Rachel groaned audibly as the Jeep made another rough landing after ambling over yet another bump in the hard ground. Trust her brother to pick a location out in the fucking sticks, where there wasn't an ice-cream's chance in hell of there being a tarmac road. It wouldn't be so bad if the jeep's suspension wasn't totally shot from driving over terrain just like this, having people in the back would be interesting; there weren't any seat belts back there.

"Nearly there buddy." Rachel murmured to Archer as he bounced up and down on the hard padded seat beside her, he grumbled as he lost his footing again. Rachel knew she was going to have to have one of these guys hold Archer on the way back to the house; hopefully none of them were afraid of dogs.

The sat-nav system beeped as she reached to co-ordinates Zac had given her, and once she cut the engine, she could make out the familiar sound of impulse engines as they descended to make a landing, it was a sound that seemed to be engrained on her soul and it was one she missed. Making sure to leave Archer in the car, she stepped out and watched at the sizeable craft landed. Looking at it, it seemed more advanced than what she was used to, but then again she was used to prototypes, and seldom ever piloted the finished products of her brother's work.

Rachel closed her eyes as she felt the pulse of the engines flow through her body, and reverberate in her chest. This is what she loved about piloting, this feeling of being one with the machines, knowing how to get the best out of them by feeling it. She heard the craft land with minimal noise, but the sound of the ground giving way beneath the landing gear was enough to tell her it had truly landed.

Pushing herself off of the bonnet of the Jeep, she let Archer out of the car, and he bounded over to the door of the small ship. Rachel smiled at his behaviour, and moved to stand behind him, watching him snuffle about. There was a mechanical clunk just before the door started to slide open.

Rachel allowed a natural smile to form on her face as she saw the six figures silhouetted against the light; it was nice to not have to hide who she really was from these people.

"Hi there!" She called out, giving a small wave. "I'm Rachel; I believe you've already spoken to my brother."

One of the figures stepped down, Rachel guessed that this must be their Captain, as he came closer she could make out his features and in doing so, he cause her heart to thunder in her chest.

"George?" She gasped, not believing her eyes.

"Not George. It's me, Jim."

* * *

**I'm sorry it's taken so long for this to be updated! I've only just realised it's nearly been a year and that makes me feel bad. But inspiration is a fickle mistress, and she can be a bitch sometimes. But I have some more free time now, and I hope to be able to devote more time to my writing process.**

**Still thanks for the awesome support! I love all you guys!**

**Xoxo**


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